


When the Spring Comes

by A_thousand_stars



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Friendship, Gen, Moving On, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25497004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_thousand_stars/pseuds/A_thousand_stars
Summary: It was summer when Felix moved to South Korea. It was summer when Felix found himself all alone. It was summer when, in the midst of the pounding heat, Felix met Chan.
Kudos: 5





	When the Spring Comes

It was summer when Felix moved to South Korea. It was summer when Felix found himself all alone. It was summer when, in the midst of the pounding heat, Felix met Chan.

When the boxes were still being unpacked, Felix’s mother pushed him out of the apartment to get food. Lost and alone with almost no grasp to the language, Felix ran towards the nearest building that looked like it sold food. Felix came up to the counter and completely forgot the lines that his mother told him. Felix forgot how to order food in Korean. So he stands there, holding up the line as he makes a vain attempt to communicate to the cashier in English.

Chan worked in the fast food place, having graduated high school, he was saving up for college. Chan saved Felix’s life then and there, and Felix went home with some food to show. He saw Chan a few times around his home and learned that Chan lived in an apartment a little down the street. And then, Felix doesn’t know exactly when, they became friends.

Chan was Australian like him. Chan was a taste of home in an unfamiliar land, the sound of a comfortable tongue in a brand new country. Felix felt that he truly belonged, a high in a life that seemed to hit an all time low.

But what comes up must come down.

One day sitting by the river under the trees in a desperate attempt to escape the sun, Chan told him. Chan told Felix over the half eaten ice cream. Chan was going to move back to Australia at the end of the summer.

For college, for Chan’s dreams. For his dreams, Chan was going to leave Felix.

Felix had half a season of home before home was going to leave him forever, leaving him stranded in a country that wasn’t Australia.

Felix didn’t finish his ice cream, the rest of it melting then running down his hand. He doesn't register it, his mind occupied with another thought.

Chan tried to get Felix more friends, friends that would stay when Chan was gone. But Felix still couldn’t talk fluently in Korean, and all that came from Chan’s attempts were awkward silences and sideways glances.

Even Seungmin, Felix had a hard time connecting with him, even if he could speak English. Felix knew nothing about the other boy, and Seungmin didn’t know anything about him. Felix didn’t enjoy being forced together. Another failed attempt.

So Chan stopped trying.

They had half of summer left, better use it together. Walks in the park desperately trying to save melting popsicles. Visiting the bakeries and wasting money on cute pastries. Swimming to beat the summer heat. Listening to music and watching movies from the safety of an air conditioned apartment. Anything to occupy their time, keep their minds off the incoming deadline creeping closer and closer.

When Felix needs to go to school, Chan walks with him there. When school ends, Chan is waiting a couple of blocks down, ready to walk together back home. Anything to steal the little bits of time together when they could.

The sun starts setting sooner. The weather cools down. And then, too soon, Chan is on his apartment’s doorstep saying his last goodbye. Words spill out of his mouth, but Felix can’t process them. The words run together in his mind, combining and mixing with each other until Felix is just thinking unintelligible gibberish. Summer was a dream and the dream has gone. The chilling breezes of autumn have arrived.

Felix has a thousand goodbyes waiting in his mouth, but he can’t find the strength to open it. The world is fading away. They stand there, Chan waiting for a goodbye.

Chan leaves without one.

Felix watches him leave the building and walk down the street. If only Felix could open his mouth. But it’s too late now. This is the last time Felix would be able to see Chan in a long time. Or maybe it’s the very last time.

Felix watches his only friend board the bus to go somewhere that he can’t reach. Their friendship is stretched thin, from South Korea to Australia. It is shaking, but it is still there, connecting them.

For the first time since he had arrived in Korea, Felix walks to school alone. He eats lunch alone. He walks home alone. The sidewalk seems too wide under his feet, like Chan was meant to be walking beside him.

Their texts become sparse too. Their lives are no longer intertwined, there is little to talk about. When they do talk, Felix learns more about Chan’s life in Australia. He is making new friends, and that means less time to talk to Felix. His classes are picking up, and that means less time to talk to Felix. Felix knows he’s being replaced. After all, Chan has traveled thousands of kilometers away, and Felix can no longer fill that spot by his side. Yet Felix still leaves his side open, still waiting for Chan to come back, even if Chan is slipping away little by little as each day passes without conversation between them.

There is a boy in his class named Jisung. Jisung studied in Malaysia, so he knows enough English to talk to Felix. They talk, sometimes. They eat together, sometimes. They don’t really hang out together outside of school. Jisung is not Chan.

So Felix still waits.

0o0o0o0o0

It has been 3 months since Felix and Chan have last talked. Autumn has come and gone, and winter has set in. Felix is farther from summer than he has ever been.

Chan no longer sits at the top of his contacts list, Jisung does. Jisung walks with him to school, most of the time. Jisung eats with him at lunch, most of the time. Felix can hold a conversation in Korean now.

The thought of Australia has been fading away since Chan’s departure.

He had joined the dance club at school. Chan’s contact even sits below Minho and Hyunjin’s. Slowly being buried away by a new era of Felix’s life.

Felix only sometimes wonders in the dead of night why he is still waiting for Chan to return. Chan clearly wasn’t waiting for Felix. Chan has clearly moved on. Felix doesn’t even know if Chan had changed numbers, if Chan even has the same phone. So why is Felix still waiting? Why does Felix still hold Chan so closely to his side if they haven’t shared words for months?

We grow up and we move on with life. Life continues on as time moves forward, waiting for no one. It is winter in Seoul, but it is summer in Sydney. They aren’t stuck together anymore.

Felix’s finger hovers over his phone. It is something that he must do. Something to help himself, now that Chan isn’t here to help him anymore.

_Are you sure you want to delete this contact?_

Just a simple tap, and the summer friendship that has been stretched between South Korea and Australia, that has been worn through the passage of time, holding on by the tiniest of strings, has finally snapped. Their last physical connection has been severed. It doesn’t hurt as much as Felix had expected. He still has a summer full of memories to keep and cherish instead.

But now he is free, truly free, no longer waiting for a person that would never come. No longer holding himself back, reaching for a false hope. It has been months. Chan has no room in his current life for Felix. His phone buzzes. Someone has texted him.

**Jisung**

_hey_

_u want to meet at the river tmrw_

Felix smiles. This is his life now. There is no use in lingering in the past, lamenting on what could have been if summer had been a bit longer. Chan is not a part of his life anymore, so Felix fills that spot with someone else.

**Felix**

_sure_

It was summer when Felix met Chan. It was autumn when Chan left Felix. It was winter when Felix left Chan. And the spring is the start of a new life.


End file.
